Managing strategic Omanisation for localization of skills in the logistics sector in Oman and dealing with challenges and headwinds

Abstract

The main thrust of this seminal research is to strategically analyse strategic Omanisation in the logistics sector to meet employer human capital requirements and expectations in Oman and to localise skills. The main reasons giving rise to this research are to illuminate world best practices on recruitment, staff retention and consolidation of localisation in the logistics sector to meet employer human capital requirements and expectations in Oman logistics firms which logistics industries, government departments and academia can then use to advantage and benefit the country. This research is based on literature review and field research done at Sohar and Barka, Muscat, Oman for fair coverage of the economic hubs of Oman, and analysis and identification of substantive gaps in knowledge thus making a contribution to the stock of knowledge available. This is theory building in the human resources theory of the General Systems Theory (GST) which proffers that organizations depend on their environments for several essential resources: customers who purchase the product or service, suppliers who provide materials, employees who provide labor or management, shareholders who invest, and governments that regulates. In this research researchers would focus on strategic logistics employees who provide labour and management, with focus on Omanisation. A survey research method will be used as well as interviews for a deeper understanding of the issues. The limitations are linked to the partial lingering COVID-19 pandemic and partly fear of talking face to face with anyone, the limited time which did not allow to do long term longitudinal studies to compare different time periods over a longer period of time (like 5-10 years) and cultural/organizational sensitivities where some questions were not answered. An exploration of literature review and field research findings clearly showed that skills localization strategies success and competitiveness required high market knowledge and sophistication, stemming the flow of workers from the private sector to the government in search of better salaries and conditions of service, good conditions of service, cultural sensitivity, good staff retention strategies, planned skills localization which does not disrupt workflow as some jobs required a lot of working experience, an understanding of the community around you and the continuous employment of supply chain graduate trainees from colleges and universities. Oman had been quite successful in this area, but the logistics sector remained dominated by expatriates for many reasons outlined in the main project like the late starting of supply chain diplomas/degrees locally, dislike of the odd hours and weekends worked in this industry, especially by females and other reasons, a situation which the government was quite keen to reverse in the short, medium and long term naturally. Researchers believed these findings would help enhance and improve the logistics sector HR practices in Oman and contribute to development. Colleges and universities can disseminate this new knowledge for improvements.  Firms can benchmark using these findings. Oman partly lags behind Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar in logistics performance and Omanisation (localization), depending on the industry sector, and findings in this research will illuminate possible reasons for correction. This 1st paper is a conceptual paper without field research and field research will be covered in the next paper.